Harm caused by ill-thought out WCIT proposals to developing world

I just completed a paper that summarizes the key arguments I have been making against the ETNO proposals to impose sending party network pays principle on the Internet. Here is an excerpt from the paper:

ETNO wants the ITU to designate Internet content providers as “call originators” and subject them to a “sending party network pays” rule that would allow telecommunications operators to charge them rates they believe are commensurate with the bandwidth their content consumes.

Such a change would have enormous implications for the expansion of the digital economy in the developing world.

• Access to content would become more expensive if content providers must pass along costs.
• Content providers may respond by terminating connections with operators, especially in countries with populations that have limited buying power and access to payment mechanisms. The Internet would be “balkanized” by cutting off some countries from large swaths of content.
• Loss of this access to content and applications, given the role played by the Internet in supporting these countries’ transitions from low-income to middle-income economies, could cost them billions of dollars in lost growth.